Doing Pretty Well

A few days ago, a guy came to the house to buy something we listed on Craiglist, and when he came in, he said, "Wow, you guys are doing pretty well for yourself." (I wasn't there- Paul says it was endearing, but it sounds snarky to me; make your own judgements.) As Paul was telling me the story, I looked around and started to protest- almost everything we own is secondhand, or was a gift, or…or…

That night, we were finishing up one of our online education classes, this one about international adoption and things to be prepared for, including lists of things to bring. One note on the list was that we would have to bring clothes- obviously- but one recommendation was to bring something that we can change the baby into immediately, because we will need to return their outfit- their one outfit- to the orphanage.

I remembered reading something similar when we were looking into a Samoan program- one of the program requirements was that you send a box of age-appropriate clothes when you accepted the referral of your child, because the child would not be provided with additional clothes beyond the minimum.

I don't know why something about baby clothes set me off, but I couldn't think about anything else, and I still sort of can't. One single outfit could be the only thing a child wears during their time in an orphanage. I don't know what our program requires yet, and it will likely be different because our baby's going to be in foster care instead of an orphanage, but still- it's common enough that this note was in our international adoption training. I don't really have words, so I will just say- I am thankful for this dose of perspective.

Updates:
DONE with paperwork AND our education hours! There was sooooo much good information, and I'm thankful we've completed it. We also got our final background check in- thankfully, the FBI has confirmed that we're not criminals. As soon as the paperwork we mailed in is processed, we can begin meeting with our social worker! Huzzah!
We are continuing to sell donated things- thank you SO much for all of this! We are still running fundraisers through Just Love Coffee and when you follow this link to Amazon. We also have set a tentative date for the craft fair- so look for more info on that soon!
We love you all, and we'll post again soon.